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CountDown Chaos's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #7305 | 2.368 | 2.700 |
| Creativity | #8040 | 2.456 | 2.800 |
| Artwork | #8553 | 2.105 | 2.400 |
| Audio | #8810 | 1.754 | 2.000 |
| Narrative | #9164 | 1.579 | 1.800 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Theres a countdown. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over ...
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
see description for full credits
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Buzzy
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Comments
So much Chaos!
It's a fun idea, but I think it miss a lot of polish. For example they were 5 spaceships and I didn't know who I was. Anyway game jams are made for this so don't give up ! Hope to see you next time, good job, keep it up !
The one you are is the brighter one, but I definitely should do more to differentiate. If I continue development the camera will be locked to your ship, so it will be easier tell apart.
I like the movement mechanic a lot, it has a lot of potential, actually feels like loos orbiting in space. Screen size problem is unfortunate, I recommend you test it in advance and during the jam (it's a thing you only need to figure out once). I only seen points counter on screen, not the timer, you probably need to add that (maybe I didn't see it because of screen size). Once you become red baron, it's impossible to tell where you are. And even before that it's hard to tell where you are - game is so fast, it needs better visual clarification. Overall game is very fun, it's chaotic and fast in a good way, it has feel and atomosphere. Congrats on you submission, good job!
Are u on mac by any chance? Macs got the whole retina thing. There is a full screen button which should fix it, but unfortunately itch hides it on the bottom right of the game screen, so you need to scroll to find it. Should I just make it full screen only?
Also there is a countdown timer under each space ship. Different space ships may have different times till they die, so there wasn't really a point to having a dedicated one to the player. Although for polish I might later add a big translucent countdown center screen that only pops up when you have 10s left.
Also yes i seriously regret programming the ability to turn into the red baron. It wasn't originally like that, but i thought it would be cool to "steal the title" kind of. Probably should have swapped it back.
I'm not on mac, it's chrome on windows. Did you change page display settings? Yesterday it was strethced full width, and I couldn't find fullscreen button. Today it's in a box and fullscreen button is there, much better! I didn't understand ship timers at first, everything moves fast, I thought it was ship's health or something (seems logical: it goes to 0 - ship dies). Turning red baron is nice, but you need to see yourself in this state. It would be perfect if player was a completely different ship, then it can turn red and still be different.
I shrunk the size down by 50% in itch’s settings. I think monitors that are smaller res don’t do well with a larger size.
There’s still some weirdness where if u start playing, then switch to full screen the ships tend to stay in the top left, since I guess the physical play area doesn’t scale with the window but whatever.
I think I’ll have to get the timer to display times in a 1:54 format instead of a 1M54S format because with the space themed font it’s hard to realize what it’s saying with that stupid S at the end.
I don’t really want the ship to be a different model since technically the other ships are still you, just you from the past, but it definitely needs a more obvious indication. Maybe something like a time trial ghost racer shader.
Wait, these ships are me from the past? That changes everything! Now I understand what you meant with "stray bullets make it worse". That's a very cool mechanic, but not understandable from gameplay, that's how chaotic and unexplained it is. Reading through other comments, it seems like other players also didn't get it, sadly. For now you could explain it on top of your game page description (and under "how your game fits the theme" as well) so jammers get it, and after jam you can update game to clarify it better. Idea is cool, you're very creative!
I guess I could call it a time-killer, though I wouldn't call it creative or overall enticing to play again.
There's no clear instructions in the game. Time runs out or something and you reset with more enemies to fight. I won't call it bad, but I won't call it good.
Overall, an arena shooter with much to yearn for, but still a step up from the could-be results of some games you see out there.
Art wasn't great, nor was it terrible.
Audio was absolutely retro, which is alright.
Gameplay was smooth.
Overall, 2 out of 5 for me, if I am honest, but honestly, you could do something with it.
Honestly this is a perfectly accurate description. I also find that its not very enticing to play again. I think the base idea is creative, but its not explored at all, and it doesn't lead to anything interesting other than a swarm of angry bees.
I do think it has potential though. Especially if I add some objectives that require careful planning to complete. It could be a sort of arena shooter puzzle hybrid.
I guess I could call it a time-killer, though I wouldn't call it creative or overall enticing to play again.
There's no clear instructions in the game. Time runs out or something and you reset with more enemies to fight. I won't call it bad, but I won't call it good.
Overall, an arena shooter with much to yearn for, but still a step up from the could-be results of some games you see out there.
Art wasn't great, nor was it terrible.
Audio was absolutely retro, which is alright.
Gameplay was smooth.
Overall, 2 out of 5 for me, if I am honest, but honestly, you could do something with it.
The art style on the ships was really cool! The movement felt like I was moving on ice lol and it was really cool! The sound effects were also super cool. Great job submitting this entry a day early - I know it can be hard for a solo dev to control scope and make a game within such a short period of time, but you did a phenomenal job managing expectations and execution! Let's see what I have for you...
Creativity:
The space ship battles could be really cool for multiplayer - I could definitely see how you can push this formula further! I would say, if you want to include the space ships getting off the screen, I would suggest adding a circle of where they are relative to the center of the screen. For example, in Super Smash Bros., you could still see the characters in a little bubble whenever they would get off the stage, even if you couldn't really see them. I think something like that could work here and also you could make their icon smaller and smaller as they get further away from the center of the screen. I'm excited to see how you can push this further!
Enjoyment:
The icy movement that you created on the space ships was really fun and cool to play around! I thought it would be cool to try to maneuver around the enemies with icy movement - I would say make an indicator of where the player is relative to the enemies since they might look similar on screen - maybe the player could be blue and the enemies could be red. It was a cool shooting game!
Narrative:
I was thinking more like Gundam where you could have like a war between different factions and that you can have different personalities for different kinds of pilots that are indicative of the enemy's playstyle. I think you could experiment a little bit with the sci-fi narrative a bit just to see what works for you and what doesn't work!
Artwork:
The space ships look really cool - Seaweed did a great job designing the space ships! I would love to see like a starry background kind of like a galaxy, or like maybe the space ships are inside a painting and then they use brush strokes to attack other enemies - that might be cool for you to take a look at!
Audio:
The pew pews were pretty satisfying to hear honestly - I would love to see any more sound effects you might find in the future!
Great entry! Good job submitting it early - you were more far ahead than a lot of people honestly, which is awesome! Can't wait to see you next year!
Thank you for the reply!
I will definitely be adding the circle that indicates where ships are off screen. Especially since i plan on making the playable area a lot bigger and giving the ship a moving camera. Its a much better idea than having them appear as dots on a mini map.
I also definitely will be adding the danger to crash into ships. Not only would it take better advantage of the movement, which seems to be the most liked part of the game, but it also would delay the utter chaos by thinning ships out.
I think the idea of multiple factions works really well with the game's time clone restart mechanic. (which is almost a narrative on its own) If we assume our intrepid space explorer has found themselves trapped in some bizarre space-time phenomena after a close encounter with a black hole; it would be cool to have multiple factions for them to side with. One round they might be fighting with faction X, then on the next they kill that time clone to borrow more time, and now they're fighting for faction Y. Maybe an evil scientist can give them an upgrade, but if you take it faction Z hates you, so on the next round you let your time clone get the upgrade so you can use it, then kill that time clone to gain favor with faction Z.
You could even save the galaxy on one round, then accidentally kill that time clone before they can even start, thereby preventing the galaxy from being saved.
I’m glad you guys are willing to stick with it! It sounds like you have a lot of plans for the game and I’m rooting for you both! Good luck with the rest of development! :D
Thanks!
game was really fun but I had trouble telling wich one was me. lol. if you continue to woke on the game you should some upgrades, bacgkroudnd, and music.
game was really fun but I had trouble telling wich one was me. lol. if you continue to woke on the game you should some upgrades, bacgkroudnd, and music.
To keep players from losing track of their ships I would make the camera follow the player. This way I can also spread out the playing field and delay the chaos a bit. I would also add asteroids, little mini objectives that give you more points, and interesting places to explore.
Background music is also on the list.
I think upgrades are a good idea, but im not sure exactly sure what upgrades to add, or how they would interact with the time travel re-spawn mechanic.
Some little tweaks could have increased the quality but still, game feel is good! You should really add a cover image and work on the game's page. This would increase the click through rate.
im working on it
Nice game feel ! Maybe a lack of some onboarding and transitions are too sudden and I often lost track of my ship, but that's okay !
I completely agree.
Feels pretty good to play.